Shannon's gravely drawl is a flawless fit for the boiling prose, and there's something nearly cathartic about hearing him spit out verses like, "I am the Kanye West of Kanye West/The Kanye West/Of the great bogus shift of bullshit culture/From one boutique to another".

Regardless of what one's interpretation - or opinion - of this poem may be, Cohen actually spoke positively about West a year before he wrote "Kanye West Is Not Picasso". "A lot of, say Jay Z or Kanye West ― you don't have to identify with every position they take, especially if you're white", he told The Wall Street Journal in 2014. While the book in which the poem appears was published posthumously, Cohen did take part in deciding what pieces would be included. "It's not necessary to identify". "It was what he was staying alive to do, his sole breathing objective at the end".